Former police officer Scotty warns that giving the homeless cash enables their bad choices, leading to avoidance of available help. He lists experiences with homeless people’s criminal behavior, addictions and deaths as examples and concludes “you have to make the good decision yourself to seek [Dallas’ resources].” However, no one knows how much crime was deterred and how much longer lives were extended by giving cash.

The officer’s remarks seem to fly in the face of Mayor Rawlings’ discussion of mental illness attitudes (“Next step: a plan -- Let's listen to mental illness experts and go to work, Mike Rawlings urges,” Friday Viewpoints). The mayor writes that mental illness is not a character flaw. The homeless may not all be mentally ill, some may have social problems, such as teens kicked out of their homes, job losses leading to evictions, etc. But much of the persistent homelessness is because of mental illness.